Worried about school

School can be a challenging time for some young people, whether it be moving from primary to secondary school, sitting exams, or even feeling misunderstood by their peers or teachers. The good thing is there are things you can do to make things better …

Not all children and young people enjoy going to school, for different reasons. If you are worried or struggling with school, it’s important to find the right support around for you. There are ways you can support yourself so that you can learn to enjoy school and manage your concerns.

Think about the people you can talk to in school

A teacher I can trust

A learning mentor

Head of year

Safeguarding Team

School counsellor

School nurse

‘Pastoral’ Team (People that are there to support you)

A peer mentor or buddy up mentor if you school has these

A friend

You can also talk to someone in one of the Liverpool CAMHS Community Plus Hubs

Some of the things young people tell us they are stressed about school:

Exams

Moving to big school

A-Level choices

Not getting on with teachers

Feeling like I don’t fit in

Friendship problems

Homework

Deadlines

Bullying

No one understands me

Top Tips

1 Sometimes when we are worried, it can feel like we have so many thoughts going around and around in our mind that it can be hard to concentrate. Trying to figure out what the big thought is that we are worrying about can help us to control our worry.

2. It can be useful to write all of your worries about school down on a piece of paper and rate them from 1 – 10 on how much they are worrying you (1 not really, 10 worrying me a lot). We know that for some people this can be hard to do, so it always helps to ask someone in school you can trust to work through this with you if you are comfortable doing this.

3. Try joining a club after school, doing things like exercise, or even a hobby is a great way to distract yourself from your worries, but also a great chance to meet new people

4. If you are worried about an upcoming exam, speak to your teacher or attend revision sessions on the subject.

5. Make a revision timetable

6. If you are worried about meeting new people when joining a new school, try finding things in common with others so that conversations are made easier for you

7. If you feel unsafe at school because of different reasons, it’s really brave and important of you to share this with a teacher or adult you can trust, as no teacher or adult will want this for you.